Crass

Any fans of Crass here? Alongside the Poison Girls (who put out a fairly strong EP called Hex but I know nothing else of), they were among the first punk bands to express genuine anarchistic ideology as opposed to the cartoon version of anarchism that the Sex Pistols displayed. These weren't teenagers who watched V for Vendetta, wrote the anarchy symbol in their high school notebook and threw bricks through the window of their teacher's home when they walked past it, these were real anarchists. So what is anarchy? Well it's essentially socialism or communism but without a government controlling any of it. We all fight for ourselves. Personally I disagree with this because I find that we need a government to survive otherwise we'd all be losing our minds and attacking one another. Structure is necessary. However anarchism is a far cry from the violent terrorism that many people think it is. Just as atheism is a lack of religion and monotheism is a religion that follows one god as opposed to several, anarchism is the opposite of monarchism (one government). So anarchy essentially means no government. I don't agree with this personally but if you follow your own life as an anarchist individual in that you do what you do within reason and don't hurt anyone else, you'd live a life that treats other people with fairness and kindness. And I respect that a lot. So how on earth does that fit with the aggression of punk? Well punk is deeply political and if you're an anarchist you probably aren't very happy with the system that's in place. Human beings are angry, they are emotive, and they're impulsive. So this anger towards the government is prevalent in the music of Crass which not only was the major influence for nearly every British anarcho-punk band to follow (though Subhumans have a rightful spot to the throne as their heir), but the level of heaviness in their sonic attack was unprecedented by any punk bands ever. In my opinion they fit in with hardcore punk. The only different is they're not american, so of course they can't be a hardcore band (sarcasm). Yet I think musically they fit in with Black Flag, Dead Kennedy's, Circle Jerks, Bad Brains, etc. They're just a tiny bit artier. However i think they're great. 

The following track is the second song off of the album Yes Sir, I Will and it's called Anarchy's Just Another Word. It's a drastic departure from their punk sound and I love it:



Here's their best straight up punk songs however: